100 Years of Montgomery Clift

Birthday bump

Whose squishy cute baby is Monty awkwardly holding?

Wasn't Matt Bomer making a movie about him?

R2 Maybe one of Kevin McCarthy's kids?

This is him with one of Stanley Kubrick's daughters. Both are cuties.

Poor Monty was demon riddled.

The recent bio on him done by his nephew was good, but the way they went on about if he was gay or not, or if it actually bothered him I thought was really unnecessary. It's been gone over so much already it all just seemed rather tedious and failed to rectify anything where there were supposed lies that were told about Monty in Patricia Bosworth/LaGuardia bios.

R5 Pretty sure that picture is from like 1948 or so, Kubruck didn't have any children then. It's almost certainly one of Kevin McCarthy's kids.

If his last two movies are any indication, he would have left the country for good and made occasional, and pretty bad, movies in the UK and Europe. Not starring, but in small roles, since he was too far gone to carry a film.

In one of the documentaries about him, his brother says how Monty wanted to get married and have kids, and there's an audio recording of that... I guess his internal conflict on being gay and wanting to be straight and lead a "normal" life is what killed him

R9, He had to do The Defector because he was an insurance liability, it was the only way he could be cleared to play the closeted army sergeant role he actually wanted in Reflections in a Golden Eye, unfortunately he died and Marlon Brando took over the role. It might've been a turning point for him had he had lived, I think he still had something to give.

R10, So why are they (his family) now so intent on denying that was the reason? I honestly don't get it.

R8 Thanks for catching my mistake. That baby is McCarthy's son Flip, not one of Kubrick's daughters.

Another pic from the same session. Kubrick photographed these for "Look" magazine.

R12 If his family were smart and played their cards right, I think they'd be able to successfully "re-brand" Monty as a Queer Icon from the Old Hollywood era for the new era. Alas, it is not meant to be.

[quote] R7 "rectify anything where there were supposed lies that were told about Monty in Patricia Bosworth/LaGuardia bios."

Yes, I've always wondered what all these supposed vicious LIES were in both of those biographies! I don't think either biography portrayed him TOO badly. If anything, he was at least pitiable by the end.

His sister-in-law, the journalist Eleanor Clift.

Monty's twin sistah, who died a few years ago.

R12 Because being is a shameful thing for many, rather people who are out and proud of their sexuality want to admit it or not. Being gay is not an easy life for many.

No one chooses to be gay, it's just something that is for some people. It's just the truth.

Being gay,^^^^^

Wonder if his twin was a furry as he was.

R15, Right, like they were really nitpicking at minor things like when Bosworth described how Monty was arrested one time for trying to pick up a "young boy" they didn't like that she said young boy instead of 'young man,' I guess because they thought it made it seem like he was a child predator? Ironically, the person who actually accused Monty of being a child predator was his own mother when she confronted him about his sexuality and said she knew he was "addicted to little boys". It just seemed like an odd thing to complain about, that and his penis size was another thing....

Monty's brother and mother are the only two people that seemed to have had a real issue with Bosworth, and to be honest, neither of them came off really well, and I would say even worse than Monty; his brother sounded like a bit of a psychopath with several failed marriages under his belt and his mother an obsessive control freak and stalker. Perhaps all this petty squabbling over trivial details was really just a cover to vent about their own portrayal in the book.

Queer Star

His life was perfect compared to what black people were going through back then. Try going through life in your own country being hated by people you've never done anything to, and they mistreat you for no reason.

Try being black in the Jim crow south. Now that was pain in life, not whatever Monty went through. He was white he was male and he was a famous film star. His life was absolutely hard right? Yeah sure it was, Not!

The same with Marilyn Monroe, white female beautiful and a rich film star and loved all over the world. These people did not have real problems, they were privileged beyond belief.

R23 Okay? And?

R23, That's a reach, Mary. Lol So we're not allowed to have empathy for anyone unless they're black and came from the South??

Although I do agree with you on Marilyn, she was beyond privileged but still played the "poor me" little girl lost act, however Monty Clift was a gay man, and in a time where that was still seen as a mental illness and a crime being gay wasn't a privilege.

Apparently Clift was stalked by James Dean who sent him letters and tried calling him and as a result Clift avoided him. Unlike Brando who likely fucked Dean and dumped him.

Marlene, Monty, Michael Wilding, Linda Christian

Marlene, Monty, Rosemary, Desi, and Lucy

R26 Clift later expressed regret that he did not reply to James Dean's many many letters. He was just a recluse.

Watching Tallulah.

R26, R29, Dean would leave messages with Marlon and Monty's answering service, even though, in Monty's case, they never met. That's some creepy, stalker shit.

Yeah, Dean was completely obsessed with them. He used the alias "Brando Clift" in personal letters. Dean was disliked by many in Hollywood because he was eccentric, had mood swings, butted heads with directors and coworkers and lacked social skills. He also used the casting couch with little to no shame. Typical bipolar/borderline behavior.

He would have made a good Batman villain.

Handsome, but often fluffed up and overly groomed in the taste of the day. He looks best in candid or some of the on set photos from westerns.

He could have been an original Data Lounger, starting many threads about caring for a demanding Mother (who died in 1988, just 7 years before DL began.)

He wasn't included in AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list and never won an Oscar, despite being nominated four times. Any thoughts?

He had the nerve to complain that the dick of a trick I sent him was an inch too long - AN INCH TOO LONG! I always called him MARY! Clift.

R35, it's no surprise that Clift isn't included in any greatest ever list. He was a big star for a brief moment in the 1950s. The car accident, his drug and alcohol addictions, his mental illness, and his disdain for Hollywood, derailed his career. By the time he died in 1966, he was a diminished man. He was uninsurable, nobody would hire him, and many of his friends abandoned him. The passage of time has further dimmed his legacy. His rival, Marlon Brando, and his successor, James Dean, are still remembered and hailed as great actors, but Montgomery Clift is nearly forgotten.

Monty forever!